Thread: WHM 5.0 Discussion

Originally Posted by Gemina

As I said before what matters is that you enjoy playing it. That matters more than any meta requirement in the game. When you say it is not engaging or doesn't require a lot of thought to heal a tank buster, why are you applying that to just WHM? That same whack-a-mole concept applies to all healers.

Only meta parties are going to require that you be a healer other than WHM. Dungeons, NM raids, 24-man and even EX primals, no one cares what you bring. If the only content you find engaging is savage, then it is understandable why you have an issue with WHM. But you have to ask yourself, is the problem the actual job, the meta, or perhaps both? As I previously pointed out, simply giving WHM the utility the meta desires doesn't magically fix the other issues the job has, nor will it suddenly make it enjoyable to someone who already dislikes playing WHM.

WHM is still the loveable iconic FF healer it always has been. It's the meta that doesn't love it because it doesn't do anything to improve "muh deeps".

My issue is that the other healers have at least SOMETHING else that's engaging, like cards or pet management. Even if those were shafted pretty hard. It's not just about what's the best for the meta. With DPS being simplified even more than it already is, I worry that WHM will be a total snoozefest to play. As for the meta, at least if it's a desired job I can find enjoyment in knowing I'm doing my best to help my party.

As it is, it feels like I would just be a burden on my party and I wouldn't even have a good personal reason for doing so. It's useful to neither the party nor the player, and at that point it's done little to justify its existence.

Originally Posted by Urthdigger

My issue is that the other healers have at least SOMETHING else that's engaging, like cards or pet management. Even if those were shafted pretty hard. It's not just about what's the best for the meta. With DPS being simplified even more than it already is, I worry that WHM will be a total snoozefest to play. As for the meta, at least if it's a desired job I can find enjoyment in knowing I'm doing my best to help my party.

As it is, it feels like I would just be a burden on my party and I wouldn't even have a good personal reason for doing so. It's useful to neither the party nor the player, and at that point it's done little to justify its existence.

The lily mechanic is no longer passive. It won't be as engaging as micro managing a fairy or cards, but it is a new resource that has several new and powerful abilities locked behind it, so it is something else you are going to have to pay attention to. WHM will never have a gimmick like SCH or AST. That is not the vision the dev team has for this job. When it comes to simplification of DPS, WHM suffered the least from these changes if at all compared to SCH and AST who both got hit, hard.

You're not going to be a burden on any party outside the meta. Even inside the meta, you are only a burden if a SCH or AST is present of equal skill level. The utility they bring doesn't mean jack if they cannot perform the very basics of their role, in which case they would be quite stupid to take a SCH or AST who can't cleanse and keep people alive over a WHM who can. If you narrow your vision to 'WHM must bring rDPS or they don't deserve to exist', then it will never be enjoyable no matter how good they design it.

The lily mechanic is no longer passive.

Lilies are actually even more passive than they were before since they charge over time in combat with zero interaction from the player at all in generating them. It is, in a way, a step backwards. Something passive is good in cases like BLM's Polyglot, because they already have the astral/umbral dance alongside Enochian, so generating polyglot as a reward for maintaining their buff is good game design.

Misery is a DPS loss on single target because the skills required to generate it (ie your lily spending skills) are all on the GCD, and it costs a GCD itself. You can call it DPS loss mitigation if you really want to (like others have taken to), but optimal WHM play on the vast majority of bosses will still continue to be "ignore lilies unless you have no choice"*), and in trash pulls it will be "spend as many lilies as you can as soon as you can no matter what". It is once again not good game design.

None of these changes really fix the core of the problem of WHM as a class, gives WHM skills that do exactly the same thing that their basic toolkit already does (albeit instantly [on the GCD] while costing a resource), gives us a stupid number of buttons that we can weave with (when all we needed was one we could use at any time) with not enough things to actually weave, and it has resulted in the gutting of the other two healers.

* I need to weave something > It's not optimal to refresh Dia/Regen at this moment to do so > the tank needs enough healing for Solus to not overheal (or raid for Rapture) -and- for my woven oGCD (ie Tetra/Assize) to not also contribute to overhealing.